Carmilla: Degrassi Style
by antinomian
Summary: Clare is a broadcast journalism student at Silas University. When her roommate, Alli, mysteriously goes missing, Clare becomes determined to get to the bottom of it with no help from Bianca, her annoying new roommate who just might be a vampire. In case it isn't obvious, this story is AU femslash.


**Author's Note: While the basic plot is borrowed from the** _ **Carmilla**_ **web series (which I don't own the rights to), the characters are all from Degrassi (which I also don't own). The story is meant to make sense on its own, even if you haven't seen the web series. Some stuff will undoubtedly be different from the series since I'm trying to keep people relatively in-character despite the fact that this is an AU and Clare is pansexual in this universe. I almost wrote this with the current generation, but I thought the last generation's characters would work better for this fic.**

Clare tore open the cardboard package containing the web camera she would be using for her first year course in broadcast journalism. Technically, she wasted her money buying such a fancy toy. Her first year journalism course was only supposed to be about two things: stage presence and great storytelling. Even though Clare knew that lighting, video quality, sound quality, and editing wouldn't be important until at least sophomore year, she couldn't help herself. Broadcast journalism had been her dream since grade seven. She didn't come all the way to Styria, Austria to produce mediocre work.

Unlike many of her classmates, Clare also didn't come to this school to party. She spent most of frosh week experimenting with the lighting in her cramped dorm room, always trying to make her videos look a bit more like _The Lizzie Bennett Diaries_ and a bit less like those blurry videos she made for her high school courses. Once the lighting was _acceptably_ good, she began looking for a real topic. Katie Matlin, the floor don, warned her to steer clear of stories about alcoholism on campus; at least five kids did projects like that each year. Clare wasn't terribly disappointed. She wanted her videos to tell a unique story that could only be told at Silas University. It was an incredibly old university that surely had a rich, fascinating history. During her second week of school, Clare frequented the library and the campus center just to soak the place in and try to find out where the stories were.

In her third week, Clare finally found her topic. It happened in the cafeteria when one of her floor mates, Adam, made a joke about Silas being haunted. Before long, almost everyone at the table was chiming in with personal experiences. Everyone had either witnessed paranormal activity themselves or knew someone who had. It was astonishing to Clare, who grew up in a devout Christian household. No one in her family believed in things like ghosts. Souls of the departed either went up or down, and there was definitely no in-between. Still, she thought it might be interesting to interview various students about their alleged experiences. Maybe she could even do some videos in places where the hauntings supposedly took place and let the viewers form their own opinions about what was really going on.

Much to her dismay, Adam had never encountered a real ghost. "A friend of a friend said she got possessed a couple years ago, though," he offered. "Does that help?"

"Depends. Can you get me an interview?" Clare asked.

A few days later, Clare met up with Holly J Sinclair to chat. The girl was a junior at Silas and a straight-A student who ran at least half of Silas's extracurricular activities. She swore that she had been possessed by the ghost of a deceased student, Ricky Murray, at a freshman Halloween party. Because she hoped for a career in the public eye, she asked Clare to simply write down her quotes and keep them anonymous. This wasn't as cool as a live interview, but Clare was grateful for such an exciting story to include on her show.

After her talk with Holly J, Clare returned to her dorm room feeling excited to start her project.

"Silas University, in picturesque Styria, where every campus tour guide warns prospective freshmen to brace themselves for the strangest four years of their lives. In a poll of thirty six Silas students, thirty one said that they believe in the supernatural. Earlier this afternoon, I was lucky enough to score an interview with a student who says she was possessed at a Halloween party two years ago."

Clare's words were interrupted when Alli Bhandari burst through the door. Clare almost hit the "pause" button on her recording software, but then she remembered that she was supposed to submit her project entirely uncut. Editing came later. "Everyone, this is Alli," Clare said, trying to maintain the enthusiasm she had been building. "My roommate and best friend of the last three weeks. So tell us, Alli. What do you think? Is Silas University haunted?"

Alli started to laugh. "Are you kidding? Those rumors are _so_ silly. Anyway, guess what I got on my chemistry test?" The girl bounced onto her bed, apparently unaware that the camera was still rolling.

"What did you get?" Clare asked.

"I got a 62," Alli said. "Which is basically a gentlewoman's C, right?"

No matter how Alli tried to play it off, Clare knew this was bad news. Alli was studying at Silas on an academic scholarship, and her grades were terrible so far. Technically a 62 was an improvement compared to last week's test, but it was still bad. This didn't seem to bother Alli, who was already digging through the shared wardrobe near the door, apparently looking for something to change into. "Jenna said there's a swim team party tonight," Alli explained. "I figure I deserve to celebrate."

"I don't know, Alli. Maybe you should stay in tonight. If there was a bit more studying and a bit less celebrating, you could be doing so much better!"

"So judgey Clare is back," Alli frowned.

"I'm not judging you; I'm just concerned," Clare said.

"And _I'm_ concerned that you spend way too much time in front of your computer and _way_ too little time having a life!" Alli said. "I promise if you come to this party, I'll study super hard tomorrow, okay?"

Motivating Alli to study was a tempting idea, but Clare really wanted a decent head start on her journalism project. "I don't know," she said. "I still want to get this interview worked in to my project. It's a good one."

Alli rolled her eyes. "This thing about the ghosts? Come on, Clare. Your project will still be here tomorrow. Besides," she smiled. "That lit TA will be there. What was his name? _Eli_?"

Clare couldn't really deny her major crush on Eli. She also couldn't deny that a part of her was very curious about dating. After her sister, Darcy, was raped a few years ago, Clare had all but let those dreams go. Sure, she went to a dance or two with KC before he moved and flirted a little with Jess until she decided to go out with some jock, but Clare had never been in an actual relationship before. Eli _was_ attractive and a great help whenever she needed ideas for her essays. Maybe he deserved a chance.

"Fine," Clare said. "I'm in, but tomorrow you'd _better_ keep your end of the bargain!"

Alli rolled her eyes. "We can study _all_ day tomorrow, okay?"

The two friends met Jenna outside the dorms and made their way across campus to the senior dorms where the swim team party was being held. Eli was there, as promised, but Clare only managed about a five minute conversation with him before his friends pulled him away. Even without Eli, the party was decent. It was nice to be out among people, learning new names, and feeling freer than she had since before Darcy's ordeal.

Clare returned to her room late and crashed on her bed from exhaustion. She woke up to find her web camera still recording. Hopefully the teacher wouldn't mind if Clare edited out fifteen hours of nothing. That was a problem to deal with later. Right now, she needed to wake Alli up and put a book in front of her before the evening arrived and Alli was invariably swept up by another party.

"Alli," Clare said. "Alli?"

When the girl didn't stir, Clare approached her roommate's bed and pulled back the blanket. There were only pillows under that blanket, and Clare realized, with a look of horror, that she had stepped in something. Looking down at her feet, Clare spotted a notecard that was covered in what she could only guess was vomit.

"Dear student," she read out loud, "your roommate no longer attends Silas University. He or she a.) lost his or her scholarship and decided to go home, b.) has elected to attend another school due to your extreme incompatibility, c.) experienced a psychological event that left him or her unfit for student life, or d.) cited personal reasons, and really, why does anyone do anything?"

Clare dropped the slimy card into her wastebasket and ran to the bathroom to wash her hands. Luckily, her mother bought tons of dorm room cleaning supplies, so Clare was easily able to find some paper towels and carpet cleaner to deal with the remaining mess. While she scrubbed, she tried to imagine what could have driven Alli away from Silas so late at night. Choice A was almost plausible; Alli's grades were definitely not good enough to let her keep her scholarship. Still, what kind of school announced its decision to kick someone out at two in the morning? More importantly, why hadn't Alli come back for her stuff? Maybe Alli was feeling too embarrassed to face her friends with the news.

Once the mess was finally out of the carpet, Clare grabbed her phone and tried calling Alli. When there was no answer, she sent a text assuring Alli that they would still be friends no matter what happened last night. Again, there was no answer. Around one p.m., Clare ate some lunch but kept her eyes on the phone. By four p.m., Clare was really starting to worry. She knew it was time to get outside help.

"So Alli's gone, and all you got was some random multiple-choice notecard?" Jenna asked incredulously. "What were the choices?"

Clare sighed. "She either lost her scholarship, transferred, experienced some kind of breakdown, or just felt like leaving all of a sudden."

"It can't have been the first one," Jenna said. "My brother lost his scholarship when he was here, but they didn't officially decide that until the semester was over and grades were actually final. Do you think she had a psychological break?"

"I guess she _could_ have." Clare shuddered, remembering how quickly Darcy had deteriorated after being raped at a party. What if something awful like that happened to Alli? "Do you think something bad happened to her at the party?" Clare asked.

Jenna thought about it for a moment. "I was with her for most of the night, but I guess anything's possible. This is really scary, Clare. I think you should probably call campus security. I'll make a few more calls to find out if anyone's seen her."

At the end of a lengthy calling tree, Clare finally reached a human being. "Campus security, how may I help you?"

Clare sat down at her desk and took a deep breath. "I haven't seen my roommate since last night, and she isn't answering her phone. I'm worried she's lost or in trouble or something."

"I see," the security official said, sounding distant and uninterested. "What's her name, please?"

"Alli. Alli Bhandari."

"I see. One moment. It looks like your roommate dropped out last night. You should have received a card informing you of this. Did you receive the card?"

"Yes, I received it, but it didn't make sense," Clare argued.

"Well, I'm sorry things didn't work out. We'll set you up with a new roommate right away."

Now, Clare was starting to panic a little bit. She knew something was wrong, and it didn't seem like the campus security official was worried. "I think there must be some mistake," Clare said. "There's no way Alli would just decide to drop out at 2 in the morning, leave all of her stuff here, and then not tell anyone what was going on."

"My information says that Alli is no longer a student here. That's all I know."

The staff member was beginning to sound like a broken record, but Clare couldn't simply give up. "I'm telling you, something is wrong. Alli's missing. If you won't help me, then at least put me through to the dean of students."

The line went dead.

Feeling desperate, Clare picked up her phone again and dialed Alli one more time. Again, there was no response. Clare tried campus security several more times, and each person she talked to said the same thing. Alli dropped out, and a new roommate would be heading over shortly.

If the school wouldn't listen, she figured she would have to find Alli herself. She decided to take her tape recorder with her and interview people who were at the party last night. It was time for some investigative journalism. After all, finding Alli was much more important than proving or disproving that the school was haunted. After deciding to start with the floor don, Katie, Clare stuffed her phone into her pocket and walked down the hall to Katie Matlin's room. Luckily, Katie was usually around. The girl was incredibly studious.

"Hey!" Katie said brightly. "Clare, right? How's your journalism project coming?"

"It's fine," Clare said, "but that's not why I'm here. Alli's missing. I haven't seen her since the swim team party last night.

Katie wore an apologetic expression. "I'm so sorry. Jake and I were there last night, but I didn't see her at all. Have you called campus security?"

"Already tried," Clare said. "They say she dropped out, but she hasn't even been back to get her stuff yet."

"That's pretty weird," Katie agreed, "but dropping out is a big deal. Maybe she's just upset. Hopefully she'll be back soon. Let me know if you hear anything, okay?"

Clare nodded. "I will."

Her next stop was at the Zeta Omega Mu fraternity house.

"You say she was an Indian girl in a pink halter," Riley Stavros said with an unconvincing smile. "Sounds hot. I hook up with girls like that all the time!"

Another muscular guy with brown yelled hair laughed. "Give it up, Riley. We all know you're gay."

Riley looked like a deer in the headlights. "Shut up, Drew!"

"It doesn't matter if she's hot or not," Clare said. "Alli's _missing_." She pulled out her cell phone to show the boys a picture of Alli.

"I remember seeing her," Drew said, "but wasn't she with you?"

Those words stung as Clare miserably walked back to her dorm room. Alli _was_ with Clare, and somehow Clare managed to lose her. Before Clare could transfer her tape recordings onto her computer, she heard the sound of a key in her door. Her heart jumped. Was Alli back?

Her hopes were dashed when curly-haired stranger in leather pants walked through the door. "Hey," the girl said.

"Wait, who the hell are you?" Clare asked.

"I'm Bianca. Your new roommate."

Bianca threw her bag onto Alli's bed and then made her way to the mini fridge, stealing one of Clare's sodas.

Clare tried her best to ignore Bianca's rude behavior and focus on the situation at hand. "I think there must have been some kind of misunderstanding," Clare said. "I don't need a new roommate. I already have a roommate."

Bianca gave Clare a withering look. "Really? And where is she?"

"Missing," Clare said sadly. "I've been looking for her for two solid days."

"Sounds like your problem," Bianca said. She pulled an official piece of paper out of her bag. "Read it."

The paper Bianca handed to Clare was an official letter from the dean stating that Bianca would be Clare's roommate from now on. Clare didn't manage to finish reading the letter before Bianca started examining the random clothing articles on Alli's bed.

"Stop that!" Clare said. "Those are not yours!"

"They're in my half of the room," Bianca said, "and finders keepers."


End file.
